This poem side by side with your 'about me' bio provide a strong double snapshot for my first visit to your place. It looks like your early schooling in those tough cold winds have helped make you someone who can greet new challenges today. I like the references to nature in this poem and even without the picture I see in my mind a tree grown strong in the wild wind.

Steve, I borrowed the phrase since it feels like what I'm doing, so feel free to as well. Glad you stopped by.

Lauren, I like accessing this place wherein poems reside.

Brian, Me too. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I come from a line of strong women including my mother who put me on that porch to begin with.

CG, Thanks, I love to think about the seeds of the woman I've become being sowed even then as an infant on that porch.

WRB, Thank you, It was my first glimpse of nature.

Mark, I hadn't looked at it that way before but it called on hidden reserves to adapt to life in another country with another language. Glad you dropped in.

ew, It all played a part. Thanks for your insights.

Sheila, I was supposed to be a Dec baby held out until Jan. Welcome.

l2w, When my mother first told of napping me on the porch I thought she was crazy- a newborn out in January? I've come to see it as a unique gift that allowed me, as I grew, to navigate the tricky waters of our difficult family.

emk, Thank you, it's all reciprocal isn't it? Someone said that we need stories more than food to stay alive. I'll check you out for sure.

Sally, I'm glad you liked it.

colleen, I can see that porch and its environs so clearly since it was my grandparent's three family house near Boston.

DJan, Ditto. It's an amazing feature of our virtual world and the sharing that happens in our blogs. There are some folks I'd love to meet- you being one of them. If you plan a trip to Italy, we have a guest room waiting.

Over and above the content, which is striking in itself, the lyricism of language and the depth of the images painted are compelling. Fine writing, and a total immersion here for me, as I also am a January child, though my adversaries were other, the winter storm can be a hard one to survive.

Hedgewitch, Maybe so, as I see it now surviving those winter storms allowed me to gain the strength I needed, or that's how I make sense of what at first view seems insensible. But thank you for the feedback on my writing. It means a lot to me after reading your gorgeous poetry.

I really love this tale you've spun--a N.E. girl toughened by the elements and two brothers, and how the last line comes full circle into self-discovery. I too am a New England girl, an only child though also a winter (February) baby, toughened not only by elements, but through the loss of both parents by 16. Gaining 1 brother and 4 sisters in the family that took me in was the start of my self-discovery. Thank you for sharing this, it is nice to feel a kinship in reading your words.

Ginny, Two New Englanders connecting across the miles through words of shared experiences in the blogosphere. Seems amazing to me. I think you had the tougher self-discovery complicated by such an enormous loss. Good for you for surviving and thriving.

Shashi, And thank you for reading and letting my words touch you. Maybe a lot of us warrior children are putting our energy into writing and connecting with one another. I like the name of your blog, I'll check it out.

International Visitors Welcome

Translate

Welcome, come in.

About Me

As an ancestor in training I'm staying active and alert in this my middle decade of old age. In my first decade I retired and moved to Antigua and Italy to have adventures in other cultures. Traveling around the Caribbean and Europe for nine years grew me out of my too- small self and gave me a bigger world view and my place in it. That was quite an education. I'm married to my best friend and main squeeze for 44 years and have a daughter who's saving the rain forest together with her husband. Through her two children's tutelage I'm learning how to grandmother. It's a work in progress demanding fierce love, scoops of creativity as well as considerable fun along the way. I love my life.

Show up & Show Your Soul

We are needed, that is all we can know. …One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to show up and show your soul….To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these- to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)